WRB Joy

I hadn't heard about this before, but in 2007 Europe announced plans
to include motorcycle testing into the EN 1317-2 longitudinal barrier
testing matrix. EN 1317 does NOT include a test of a motorcyclist
being bodily thrown onto the barrier. Why not? This really is the
root cause of crash barriers being so dangerous to motorcyclists!
They are not a consideration. When they are, the standards-compliant
designs will become safer for us.

Here is an interesting article I found when researching EN 1317, taken
from the International Road Safety Federation blog... for the type of
folk out there that like to read the papers.

http://www.irfnews.org/files/pdfs/Clay-Gabler.pdf

 

.....and that paper had what to do with WRBs?

H

 

Good question. That paper doesn't have anything to do with WRB as
such. It covers all roadside crash barriers, and all it does is
contain another set of numbers showing they're horribly dangerous to
motorcyclists. WRB is EN 1317 compliant, but the European safety
standard only involves hitting the barriers with trucks. They didn't
include motorcycles for some unknown reason. The announcement saying
motorcycle testing is going to be added to EN 1317 is coincidental and
reported on the blog I was reading when I saw the link to the paper.

I should have said that, when the revised standards are signed off,
and new standards-compliant barriers come out we can reaonably expect
them to be safer for bikes.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:39:13 +1100

Did they die of head injuries?

If not, why would helmets matter?

If they don't state what they died of, then why assume head injuries?

Riders killed or injured by wire rope barriers tend to be hurt by
slamming bits of body into the posts, not from head injuries. Why
would guardrails be different?

Zebee

 

Hmmm, maybe, there was interestingly chosen data sets in the graphical
representation of the accidents. Look closer at them.
Possibly.....

H

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:43:22 +1100

Why not?

IF they don't mandate helmets they don't think that way.

Zebee

 

How can you be so sure?

H

 

With the clearances the RTA instals them to in NSW (especially on the
Princes Hwy - 900mm from traffic in the centre of a 100Km/h road), the
only way to make them safer AFAICS is to take a 9" angle grinder to all
the posts at ground level. Cheers

 

Yes. Interesting... the following was reported in the New York Times
August 2008:

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, in 1975, 47
states required all motorcycle riders to wear helmets, but now only 20
do.

At the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the organization that
conducts independent vehicle crash tests, Russ Rader, a spokesman,
said “We are the only industrialized country in the world where there
is an organized effort to weaken or repeal motorcycle helmet laws.
That definitely is a factor in the increasing deaths.”

!!